2024 Lok Sabha elections: Bandits, guns now silent, development on the horizon for Chitrakoot’s Patha
This Lok Sabha election is the first without the fear of any major dacoit as Babli Kol, the last of the prominent ones, was killed soon after the 2019 parliamentary polls
Ram Niranjan, 49, still remembers how the silence of that August 2012 midnight was shattered by the staccato burst of AK-47 assault rifles, as dacoits of the Babli Kol gang arrived at his house in Doda Mafi, a back-of-the-beyond Dalit dominated village in Chitrakoot’s sparsely populated rocky terrain that borders the jungles in the Patha region, and began firing discriminately.
Six of his family members were killed in that firing. Many bullets missed their targets and hit the walls of the house instead, leaving bullet holes on them that even today are testimony to the brutality of those horrifying killings in this remote part of Bundelkhand that borders Madhya Pradesh.
Villagers feel that the killings were executed by Babli Kol, perhaps on the orders of his mentor Sudesh Patel alias Balkhadia, a dreaded dacoit who was eventually killed in a police encounter in 2015. After him, Kol as the dacoit in-charge of the area, came into his own, unleashing a reign of terror in the Chitrakoot region of Bundelkhand, before he, too, met his inevitable fate, soon after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
That’s why Niranjan says this is the first Lok Sabha election when his entire family will go out to vote without the shadow of dacoits.
“I don’t know why dacoits targeted my family. But the worst is perhaps over and this is the first Lok Sabha poll without the menace of dacoits and thus this time our family will go out to vote in the name of law and order, an issue that, along with employment, touches the poor the most,” Niranjan says.
“My youngest son, now 18, is going to be a first-time voter this time and my desire is to see any one of my two sons, the eldest being 21 years’ old, becoming a police officer. If that happens, I would be greatly satisfied and perhaps the reason why despite so much I ensured that my sons get to study,” he says.
A little distance away, another villager guides us to a freshly painted school in the village, which as per the notice on it, reads: “established 1956!”
“This is indeed a very old school but has only now seen the number of students increase. The teacher comes from Kaushambi, some 50 kilometres away,” says Dinesh Kumar Tiwari, 65, a local shopkeeper who vouches for the terror of dacoits in each election, until about 2019.
“Back then, such was their fear that we would be locked up in our homes. Now, of course things have changed much,” Tiwari says.
Balkhadia and Thokia were perhaps the last of the prominent dacoits as, before them, two other dreaded dacoits of the region had been killed in police encounters during Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s stint as chief minister.
While the dreaded Shiv Kumar Patel alias “Dadua” was killed in a police encounter in July 2007, Ambika Patel alias “Thokia” created a stir by ambushing a police party, killing six STF personnel.
“The difference between Dadua and Thokia was while Dadua rarely, if ever, targeted cops, Thokia was trigger happy and targeted the STF (Special Task Force) too, on July 22, 2007, but would issue appeals of support in favour of a political party. He didn’t survive long after that as he was killed in a police encounter in August 2008,” a local says.
At Bagholan village under Fatehpur police station, a martyrs’ memorial for STF personnel ambushed by the Thokia gang is a reminder of the killings of July 22, 2007.
“We grew up in those times when dacoits would issue diktats about the party we were to vote for. While 2007 and 2008 saw the end of major bandits, Babli Kol, the last of the dreaded dacoits, was killed after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. There could be some smaller bandits still hiding somewhere but as of now, due to pro-active policing, not many would muster courage,” said Prahlad Vishwakarma, a local carpenter.
This rocky region, located in the border area of Satna district of Madhya Pradesh had been a haven for bandits and dacoits, with the adjacent jungles and hilly terrain providing them perfect cover for decades.
Now, of course, as you drive along the region, where bandits called the shots not so very long ago, there are sure signs of efforts by the government to make the region a hub of tourism. The Tulsi waterfall that is dry now and where the state’s first glass skywalk bridge is set to come up is one such effort.
“Shaped like Lord Ram’s bow and arrow, this bridge, when ready, would surely make it a premier eco-tourism destination. Work on this bridge has been delayed due to the contractor tasked with the exercise meeting with an accident,” says a watchman who guards the area.
The architectural marvel is scheduled to be ready after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, by which time the locals of the region would have firmly indicated their preference for peace and prosperity.
“When things like this start happening, tourist footfalls would grow and with it the region would undergo a change. This region lacked such development earlier,” says Rajkumari, a local, who however, regrets the fact that the name of the waterfall was changed from Shabari to Tulsi.
“Shabari was a tribal woman of the area whose association with Lord Ram is well known. Yes, Tulsidasji too is revered but having named it after her, what was the point in replacing it,” she asks the brief discussion with this tribal woman also revealing how free from bandit-fear, the villagers are now beginning to open up about their preferences.